Review of School Shorts: Daffodil Scissors & ITTULLKYLLYOOIFFYOODOO at Royal & Derngate (Underground), Northampton
Act One of the Royal & Derngate Youth Theatre School Shorts were a great deal less stressful than Act Two with its subject matter (although to be fair one included the subject of bullying, albeit quite lightly). It was also a group of younger children and this dropped the level of seriousness considerable (for the better). So we had a little bit of pausing for lines (they carried scripts, but didn't always want to use them), we had obstinate hats, we had glances to parents and we had fiddling with ties. It was all much more relaxed, and therefore much more enjoyable to watch. * Daffodil Scissors by Philip Ridley is a fun little story of Daffodil (Jack Brennan) and his problems and indeed woes, mostly at the hands of his highly needy mother (Mia Heslop). Through her bizarre needs, she not only requires Daffodil to wear frankly ridiculous hats, which end in his being bullied, but she also requires to sit and watch "boring, boring, boring" television with her, kee...